Unilever enjoys good beauty growth in Q3, premium ops are strong

Unilever’s Q3 trading statement on Thursday saw the consumer goods giant reporting turnover up 3.8% to €12.5 billion on an underlying basis but down 4.8% on a reported basis as rampant inflation in Venezuela and Argentina skewed the figures.

Unilever/HourglassThat 3.8% underlying rise was made up of a 1.4% increase in prices and a 2.4% volume expansion so the company is clearly selling more of its products to more people around the world and is able to charge slightly more for them too.

In the beauty and personal care category, it did slightly better with 4% underlying sales growth to €5.2 billion. The company said this area was also helped by improved price growth.

​Growth in its prestige beauty operations also accelerated with double-digit rises in Hourglass, Kate Sommerville, Living Proof and REN. Love, Beauty & Planet, the largest of its new brand launches, was extended into deodorants and skincare this quarter and the new brand K-Bright was launched in South East Asia to address the fast-growing Korean beauty trend.

Its skincare ops continued with “strong growth momentum”, helped by innovations including Citra's new naturals range while Ponds benefited as it launched new premium formats such as a cleansing balm to remove make-up and moisturise.

Skin cleansing performed well “driven by the continued success of premium formats including the launch of foaming shower gels.” In deodorants, prices returned to growth and volumes “were helped by purpose-led campaigns on Dove Men+Care and Rexona.”

Meanwhile, in haircare, while it said that “promotional intensity remained high”. But Dove had a good quarter driven by the rollout of a new naturals range “and the launch of 'super' conditioners to reduce hair damage in just one minute.”